My sister was looking at some signs online that you could have a vinyl cutout a letter + name (some would cutout a stencil and paint it) on pallet backboard, and was wanting one. I told her I could do something similar out of entirely wood. Gave it to her during her shower and everyone loved it =D

Ended up using oak (2′ x 2′ x 3/4″) and cherry (1/4″ thick) for this. Cut the pocket with a 1/8th inch bit, and followed up with a 45º V-bit on the edges and the ‘Logan’ & ‘Est 2017’ were cut out w/ the V-bit to give them a nice edge as well.

Used one of the methods mentioned on here to switch tools, where I had the same 0,0,0 for both tools. (after first bit was done, I changed bits, and returned it so the tip of the Vbit was the same center of where the 1/8″ bit started at)

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Nice work Brad! Thanks for sharing. Another interesting technique I tried on a much smaller engraving (which turned out well) was using a darker stain on the engraved portion (used a toothpick to get it in there. Worked pretty well would be interesting to see it on a large engraving like this I’ll have to give it a go. Keep up the great work man. Post future’makes’ for us to gain inspiration! Neil

The ‘est 2017’ is actually a dark stain and not paint. I initially stained the big L with the darker stain as well, but since it was an oak plywood, the layer I had cut down to didn’t take the stain like I wanted it to, so ended up having to prime/paint over it. (would have worked if I had measured to the next layer more exactly lol).

I’ve got a decent amount of people asking to buy them, so I’ll have a few more to try out other techniques / staining the big letter again.

I love the production value of frank howarth’s videos, and how unique his projects are. I actually started watching his videos when I started working on my lathe because he does a lot of segmented wood / contrasting wood projects.

Bradley F – First I am dense.. I am trying to understand your process for this. I scored some really nice barn wood at an auction today with the very thought of doing something similar to what you did with the Logan sign.

I am totally new to all of this – just finished my MPCNC last week and have only cut a few items.

The Cherry wood is what is throwing me… is that the Logan text cut out and then attached or inlaid into the oak with the captial L ?

For this one, I cutout the L and est from the oak, and the cherry wood is cut from a separate piece and glued/attached on top of the 3/4 oak board. (I just used a good wood glue to attach it).

There are a few other different ways you could do this as well to be a little more fancy, inlay: cut out the text with the thin board using an outside cutout, for the thicker backer board you would use the same model you would make a pocket cutout using the interior of the text, then the cutout piece could then fit perfectly into it.

a sticking out inlay: where you would tell it to carve out the engraved part in the backer board half the depth of the front part to have the text stick out a bit.

Resin infill: you could do a cutout and fill the cutout with a colored resin (poly would work well)

*for any of these methods, I would do smaller tests to ensure fit, before cutting anything bigger.

My sister was looking at some signs online that you could have a vinyl cutout a letter + name (some would cutout a stencil and paint it) on pallet backboard, and was wanting one. I told her I could do something similar out of entirely wood. Gave it to her during her shower and everyone loved it =D

Ended up using oak (2′ x 2′ x 3/4″) and cherry (1/4″ thick) for this. Cut the pocket with a 1/8th inch bit, and followed up with a 45º V-bit on the edges and the ‘Logan’ & ‘Est 2017’ were cut out w/ the V-bit to give them a nice edge as well.

Used one of the methods mentioned on here to switch tools, where I had the same 0,0,0 for both tools. (after first bit was done, I changed bits, and returned it so the tip of the Vbit was the same center of where the 1/8″ bit started at)